Adkins out

[William Henry Foulkes]

Not a lover of Adkins and not bothered if he goes or stays . Had a belly full to be honesty. Last night really summed up a season.

The difference between us and the rest is we are tactically inept . Brown last night changed tactics on three occasions and we didn't adapt . It got to the point we just lost all shape and nobody had any idea who was marking who . When it comes to this you cannot win your personal battles as , you just finish up punch drunk and chasing shadows. Players finish up just not knowing what there roles and responsibilities are .

We have to question Adkins and his coaching team overall . This to me has Reading written all over it . Adkins does not know league 1 at all and that has come to bite us in the arse. His aspirations were premiership or championship for getting back into management .

Have we again the scenario of a wrong manager for the wrong division . He knows less about league 1 players than us , we fans have had 5 seasons to study the good bad and ugly .

Definition to me is you need a experienced league 1 or 2 manager to get you out of this league , like you need a championship manager with experience to get you out of the championship.

UTB

Bearing in mind we created very good chances last night for Flynn, and in particular Che and Billy anyway...

I think there's some truth in there somewhere.

For me his weakness is changing systems to win a game - that might be bc we haven't got the players to do that.

But often after subs we do look disjointed and ineffective.

Worst example was going long v Shrewsbury.

 

[cooperblade]

I'm still not quite in the Adkins Out camp although I get closer by the week. Sacking Wilson and sacking Clough were huge mistakes and that makes me reluctant to say we should sack someone else (even though Adkins doesn't appear to be anywhere near as good a manager as those two).

My concerns:

He seems to be a manager whose main strength is creating a positive atmosphere and building teams who believe in each other and think they can achieve anything. Unfortunately Bramall Lane / Sheffield / South Yorkshire isn't a place where such a method works easily and our players are so far beyond caring that a nicey-nicey approach is just seen as an excuse to toss it off.

Tactically he seems to be easily out-thought. Many times this season, a change of formation by the opposition has totally thrown us. Slight mitigating circumstances last night as we were desperately chasing 3 points but I've commented before on how we often seem to end the game without any shape or formation.

Recruitment has been a total disaster.


He has to be totally ruthless now and build a group of players who will buy into his way, are hungry to succeed and who can play. The 'pathway for youth' stuff is all well and good (although we've heard it from a lot of managers now and, for me, it's just them saying what McCabe wants to hear) but if they're not good enough, we can't afford to play them.

 

[TJB.]

He was left with (and this is only part of the story):

Baxter as a playmaker, and everything that comes with that
Coutts as an attacking midfielder who is extremely limited.defensively
Collins at centre half - unwilling/unable to play the designated system and apparently fell out with two managers
Bob, Scoogs, Freeman, Wallace (obviously) - injury prone and unavailable

I think the big concern is recruitment. Why didn't we get anyone in on loan?

Someone posted a while ago that we are not seen as a good place to send young players.

I wonder if, strangely, last night might have been a good advert for the club from that point of view.

Che and Whiteman started and did well - if only Che could score(!), DCL came on and did his confident trick and shot - but should have hit the target, and the crowd were (basically) behind the team till it went flat at 2-1.

And we just take Long for granted now. Dropped a clanger for the first but recovered and played well the rest of the game. Developing a young player with that resilience shouldn't go unnoticed by a Division 1 team looking to blood a youngster in first team football.

Recruitment is key.

Besides that, for me, goalscoring is often overlooked as an area we need to improve.

Keep Adkins - but we need some measure of what's acceptable next season.

Recruitment is indeed key, and I've no idea which way it will go either. We need a really, really fucking good summer to get us competing again. I don't care about big names or recruiting from above. I just want decent, consistent players with a bit of quality and better pace. Pace is the one I'm personally desperate for. We move the ball so slowly it's painful.

I still think hands were tied last year with such a big squad which could indicate why more loans weren't brought in. Also, people talk and if there is really a poor culture/dressing room at the club, as many believe there to be, that's not somewhere you want your players going no matter what age they are. Perhaps it was seen as a waste of money by the board because it was clear we weren't really going anywhere. Perhaps 'We tried, but...' isn't always a peddled excuse and is sometimes what genuinely happens.

I couldn't name you a manager in the game whom I'd trust 100% in the transfer market with a rebuilding job such as this. Least of all the likes of Chris Wilder who has never set foot in a club of this size and level of expectation. By all means give Warnock the job if you want 8 of 12 new players to be bang average strikers you've barely heard of. I believe plans are already well underway to get the right people in as soon as the window opens, and they probably have been for a while. Derailing all of that now the season is practically over is suicidal.

 

[Ted Danson]

Clever. Care to address the rest of my point? Have you got a couple milli down the back of the sofa we could use to get shot of 'em all?

Its not me who has to pay, its that **** McCabe who hired him in the first place, and yes he has got a few mil down the back of the sofa he could do it with.

If he can afford to let a manager sign a RB for 1.5 mil and then sack him within 6 months and pay however many mil to bring in a new management staff then he has enough to do it again.

If we have no money then Adkins isnt the right manager for us anyway as hes proved he needs shit loads of cash to be successful. If we have money then we can afford to sack him. Sticking with Adkins will cost us much more in the long run.

 

[William Henry Foulkes]

Recruitment is indeed key, and I've no idea which way it will go either. We need a really, really fucking good summer to get us competing again. I don't care about big names or recruiting from above. I just want decent, consistent players with a bit of quality and better pace. Pace is the one I'm personally desperate for. We move the ball so slowly it's painful.

I still think hands were tied last year with such a big squad which could indicate why more loans weren't brought in. Also, people talk and if there is really a poor culture/dressing room at the club, as many believe there to be, that's not somewhere you want your players going no matter what age they are. Perhaps it was seen as a waste of money by the board because it was clear we weren't really going anywhere. Perhaps 'We tried, but...' isn't always a peddled excuse and is sometimes what genuinely happens.

I couldn't name you a manager in the game whom I'd trust 100% in the transfer market with a rebuilding job such as this. Least of all the likes of Chris Wilder who has never set foot in a club of this size and level of expectation. By all means give Warnock the job if you want 8 of 12 new players to be bang average strikers you've barely heard of. I believe plans are already well underway to get the right people in as soon as the window opens, and they probably have been for a while. Derailing all of that now the season is practically over is suicidal.

Exactly! Especially the bit about suicide.

 

[BornOnShorehamStreet]

If we sacked him and got Pochettino in I wouldn't be confident he could get this club back on its feet after thinking at the time of their appointments the likes of Robson, Clough, Adkin's, Speed, et al were our saviours.

Other than the incorrect use of the apostrophe in Adkin's (shouldn't be one) I can't fault your rationale

 

[William Henry Foulkes]

Recruitment is indeed key, and I've no idea which way it will go either. We need a really, really fucking good summer to get us competing again. I don't care about big names or recruiting from above. I just want decent, consistent players with a bit of quality and better pace. Pace is the one I'm personally desperate for. We move the ball so slowly it's painful.

I still think hands were tied last year with such a big squad which could indicate why more loans weren't brought in. Also, people talk and if there is really a poor culture/dressing room at the club, as many believe there to be, that's not somewhere you want your players going no matter what age they are. Perhaps it was seen as a waste of money by the board because it was clear we weren't really going anywhere. Perhaps 'We tried, but...' isn't always a peddled excuse and is sometimes what genuinely happens.

I couldn't name you a manager in the game whom I'd trust 100% in the transfer market with a rebuilding job such as this. Least of all the likes of Chris Wilder who has never set foot in a club of this size and level of expectation. By all means give Warnock the job if you want 8 of 12 new players to be bang average strikers you've barely heard of. I believe plans are already well underway to get the right people in as soon as the window opens, and they probably have been for a while. Derailing all of that now the season is practically over is suicidal.

The bit about moving the ball slowly - drives me to distraction.

One moment last night Whiteman got the ball and drilled it into Adams.

It didn't quite come off (it was very close though), but for once there was pace on the ball.

 

[BornOnShorehamStreet]

I think the answer to our problems may have been watching us closely last night - Ian Holloway anyone?

At least his interviews would be worth waiting for

 

[yorkshirecoast]

Recruitment is indeed key, and I've no idea which way it will go either. We need a really, really fucking good summer to get us competing again. I don't care about big names or recruiting from above. I just want decent, consistent players with a bit of quality and better pace. Pace is the one I'm personally desperate for. We move the ball so slowly it's painful.

I still think hands were tied last year with such a big squad which could indicate why more loans weren't brought in. Also, people talk and if there is really a poor culture/dressing room at the club, as many believe there to be, that's not somewhere you want your players going no matter what age they are. Perhaps it was seen as a waste of money by the board because it was clear we weren't really going anywhere. Perhaps 'We tried, but...' isn't always a peddled excuse and is sometimes what genuinely happens.

I couldn't name you a manager in the game whom I'd trust 100% in the transfer market with a rebuilding job such as this. Least of all the likes of Chris Wilder who has never set foot in a club of this size and level of expectation. By all means give Warnock the job if you want 8 of 12 new players to be bang average strikers you've barely heard of. I believe plans are already well underway to get the right people in as soon as the window opens, and they probably have been for a while. Derailing all of that now the season is practically over is suicidal.

Derailing all what now?Adkins has already made us worse not better and there is absolutely nothing to suggest that will change. There isn't one aspect of his management that has been good - signings, selections, substitutions, tactics, motivation -all abysmal.

 

[PeteBlade]

I'd go for wilder ,with Deano as part of the front line staff .all true blades would be at the lane ,blades reunited,the city is red and white ,part timers executed before kick offs

Last time we had a "True Blade" manager at the Lane it was Micky Adams !

 

[Lord Bos of Eckington.]

Last time we had a "True Blade" manager at the Lane it was Micky Adams !

Pete, that's the big worry with this true blade shit banded around . Best man for the job is all we want and with the dross and failure around , who could we honestly get to replace Adkins .

Shake up on the coaching staff IMO is definatley required.

Love to have the view from a sensible pro at the lane . Suppose that would have to be Billy .

UTB

 

[Sean Thornton]

Last time we had a "True Blade" manager at the Lane it was Micky Adams !

If McCabe did appoint Wilder and Deane as soon as it went wrong the people crying out for it would be on his back for taking the cheap option again.

 

[TJB.]

Its not me who has to pay, its that **** McCabe who hired him in the first place, and yes he has got a few mil down the back of the sofa he could do it with.

Kevin McCabe, much as we'd like him to be, is not an endless pit of money. Say what you like about him but you can't say he hasn't put in a few quid over the years. There are budgets to stick to, thus the money to get rid of Nige and his backroom staff must come out of...

If he can afford to let a manager sign a RB for 1.5 mil and then sack him within 6 months and pay however many mil to bring in a new management staff then he has enough to do it again.

That's simply not true though, is it?

If we have no money then Adkins isnt the right manager for us anyway as hes proved he needs shit loads of cash to be successful. If we have money then we can afford to sack him. Sticking with Adkins will cost us much more in the long run.

How has he proved he needs shitloads of cash to be a success? He needs a dressing room of decent players who respond well to his methods of management. Every player is different. There will be ones out there who will thrive under him, as has happened before. They can come from anywhere, they don't have to cost the earth. 'If we have money then we can afford to sack him' is a bizarre statement. Again, there are budgets, and all monies should be going towards player recruitment.

 

[Bladeloyal]

If McCabe did appoint Wilder and Deane as soon as it went wrong the people crying out for it would be on his back for taking the cheap option again.

We always go for the expensive cheap option ! Well paid crap

 

[The Crab]

Big changes need to be made, we need to virtually get rid of everyone associated with the club, as been said, we are rotten from top to bottom.

This for me would be the ldeal scenario if I'm honest. Adkins is doing himself no favours, but I'm at the point where I think it really doesn't matter who you get as a replacement, the rot has spread much further than the managers office.

It's a bit like giving Michel Roux Jr some shit and some bread, you will still only end up with a Shit Sandwich.

 

[Bladeloyal]

This for me would be the ldeal scenario if I'm honest. Adkins is doing himself no favours, but I'm at the point where I think it really doesn't matter who you get as a replacement, the rot has spread much further than the managers office.

It's a bit like giving Michel Roux Jr some shit and some bread, you will still only end up with a Shit Sandwich.

A Michelin starred shit sandwich

 

[The Crab]

A Michelin starred shit sandwiche

True, but still ultimately a Shit Sandwich

 

[TJB.]

Derailing all what now?

Any plans regarding player recruitment over this summer being made by Adkins and his staff as we speak. The sort of plans being made by every club in the country around this time of year. Basically what I said in the sentence before the word 'derailing'!

 

[yorkshirecoast]

Any plans regarding player recruitment over this summer being made by Adkins and his staff as we speak. The sort of plans being made by every club in the country around this time of year. Basically what I said in the sentence before the word 'derailing'!

Oh you mean like the plan to see where we were in January and then to really go for it in the Jan transfer window? Or the plan to reinvest all the Murphy money?

If the plan involves Adkins signing the likes of Hammond, Sammon and Woolford then I think derailing it would be a good idea.

 

[Coily]

I think the answer to our problems may have been watching us closely last night - Ian Holloway anyone?

i was interested in phil brown's interview after the game.. southend's budget is a quarter of hours.. a fucking quarter!!
i think i will give him until next season but if the board sanction hammond's transfer they will wish i was never born

Given that Phil Brown changed tactics to win the game last night, perhaps he would be a better shout. And he's done pretty well at Hull and at Southend where with a budget that probably covers our pitch protection lighting costs he's got them out of L2 and above us in L1, so he knows the league. Had he been in charge of us last night, would he have said a 3-1 defeat was "a good game from our point of view" like Adkins did? He'd probably have flayed and salt-dipped a few of our lot, and they'd have fucking deserved it.

I'm not at this point advocating another manager change, but Adkins needs to stop fooling himself (and us) with this perpetual optimism. We can see for ourselves that it is a bag of shite right now, so be honest about it. If he were to say that the play offs were gone, most will agree, it doesn't mean they should stop trying to win every game. In fact, go gung ho, it may be a disaster but a damn sight more entertaining than most of the bilge his team have served up.

 

[Ted Danson]

Kevin McCabe, much as we'd like him to be, is not an endless pit of money. Say what you like about him but you can't say he hasn't put in a few quid over the years. There are budgets to stick to, thus the money to get rid of Nige and his backroom staff must come out of...



That's simply not true though, is it?



How has he proved he needs shitloads of cash to be a success? He needs a dressing room of decent players who respond well to his methods of management. Every player is different. There will be ones out there who will thrive under him, as has happened before. They can come from anywhere, they don't have to cost the earth. 'If we have money then we can afford to sack him' is a bizarre statement. Again, there are budgets, and all monies should be going towards player recruitment.

McCabe has put money in yes (taken alot of property out too) and he can do it again to get correct his bad decision to sack Clough. he can do this out of money which isnt included in FFP.

Whats not true about Brayford? he cost a reported 1.5 Mil and Clough was sacked 6 months later? please elaborate.

he has proved it he needs shit loads of cash because hes done absolute shite with a half decent team and hes been aloud to piss away 500K on Sharp and seems to want to rely on Prem cast offs rather than signing promising youngsters from lower leagues. Hes also proved he cant motivate anyone, all the players are currently playing at about 75% of what they can do and thats all down to his bad management.

"If we have money then we can afford to sack him' is a bizarre statement."

not atall, when you lot are saying we cant afford to sack him, I am saying we can and we should immediately in fact we cant afford not to sack him

 

[grafikhaus]

Re loanees - he still wants to play as though the play-offs are possible,.and from him I think that's exactly the right message for the young players in particular - don't give up.

Adkins in a nutshell - he talks a good game. If he's giving the players 'the right message' - don't give up - it certainly isn't transferring itself to the team when they cross the white line.

 

[Bartleby]

From his body language in his interview I didn't think he looked as stressed and under pressure as he has in some others recently, so I'm wondering if he's had word from above that his job is safe.

Not always keen on some of these independent football league websites but this looks a reasonable summry of the situation to me (though I wasn't at the game, but saw most of it on sky)

http://footballleagueworld.co.uk/3-things-we-learned-from-southends-3-1-win-over-sheffield-united/

edit: just noticed that article was written by a Blade fan so not exactly an unbiased view

 

[Jonboy60]

I get people's frustrations, and Adkins isn't without fault, I've said as such several times before. However - changing the manager isn't the answer (not whilst the new one would have to work under the same, clueless, inept, ambition-less board).

Changing the manager now is like going to the mechanic because you're car won't start, but only asking them to replace your headlights.

If the headlights get you an m.o.t kozzy, I'll worry about getting it started later.

 

[grafikhaus]

Would this thread even exist if Billy, Che, or even Flynn had put away very good chances.

...and we forget all the utter dross we've witnessed all season?

All evidence is McCabe has bought into the long term (now there's an idea) plan.

Better idea is performance targets for next season.

Now you're talking. Instead of the usual cycle of - crap manager sets us back, crap manager departs considerably richer, next crap manager comes in - why can't we employ a manager who has a stake in the club. This could be a bonus-heavy payment for success, clear guidelines of no payout for failure and a fair (but not £10k a week) salary. £2k should do it.

 

[PeteBlade]

We always go for the expensive cheap option ! Well paid crap

To be fair this definitely does sum us up.

 

[HoodedClaw]

Oh you mean like the plan to see where we were in January and then to really go for it in the Jan transfer window? Or the plan to reinvest all the Murphy money?

If the plan involves Adkins signing the likes of Hammond, Sammon and Woolford then I think derailing it would be a good idea.

Are you saying that given a choice Adkins didn't want to spend and recruit in Jan?

 

[TJB.]

McCabe has put money in yes (taken alot of property out too) and he can do it again to get correct his bad decision to sack Clough. he can do this out of money which isnt included in FFP.

Clough had control of the purse strings and brought McEveley and Higdon in! Clough is partially why we're in this ruddy mess. You reckon Hammond is bad value for money? Can you imagine how bad an investment Higdon was if it was all put on paper? We did right fucking Clough off. But I digress.

This whole 'He did it last year so he can do it again' thing is a bit baffling to me, fella. Should he do it every year until a gaffer clicks and takes us up in one season? Genuine question.

Whats not true about Brayford? he cost a reported 1.5 Mil and Clough was sacked 6 months later? please elaborate.

The bit where if we can afford to spend £1.5million on a RB then sack the gaffer then we can surely afford to do it again. We can't afford to do that again. Not only for the reasons I've outlined in that ALL money in the budget should be going towards new players and not yet more compensation, but that we couldn't afford to spend that much on a RB in the first fucking place. We all love Brayford, but anyone with half a brain can tell you he wasn't what we needed at the time and that if we were intent on spending that much dosh, it should have gone towards other areas where we were weak. £1.5mill, for fucks sake. That's three very decent players at this level.

he has proved it he needs shit loads of cash because hes done absolute shite with a half decent team and hes been aloud to piss away 500K on Sharp and seems to want to rely on Prem cast offs rather than signing promising youngsters from lower leagues. Hes also proved he cant motivate anyone, all the players are currently playing at about 75% of what they can do and thats all down to his bad management.

Half decent team? I don't think we were. We limped to 5th playing shite footy and being carried by a winger who was destined for greater things than League 1. We then got our arses handed to us by a side who themselves got bent over in the play-offs. This wasn't a decent side.

Your comment on Sharp is utterly bizarre. We needed a goalscorer, we got one. He's our top scorer and has been the only one looking like he gives a shit in most games, and he only cost £500k.

Why does Sharp look motivated and the others don't? Have you considered that the players are the problem and not the gaffer? You can lead a horse to water but you can't make it drink. If it's the players that don't give a shit, which is just as plausible as him being a poor motivator, what more can the gaffer do? I don't get this 'He's a poor motivator' guff. How can anyone possibly know? Are they hiding under a pile of shirts in the dressing room?

"If we have money then we can afford to sack him' is a bizarre statement."

not atall, when you lot are saying we cant afford to sack him, I am saying we can and we should immediately in fact we cant afford not to sack him

Again, budgets!

 

[PeteBlade]

Given that Phil Brown changed tactics to win the game last night, perhaps he would be a better shout. And he's done pretty well at Hull and at Southend where with a budget that probably covers our pitch protection lighting costs he's got them out of L2 and above us in L1, so he knows the league. Had he been in charge of us last night, would he have said a 3-1 defeat was "a good game from our point of view" like Adkins did? He'd probably have flayed and salt-dipped a few of our lot, and they'd have fucking deserved it.

I'm not at this point advocating another manager change, but Adkins needs to stop fooling himself (and us) with this perpetual optimism. We can see for ourselves that it is a bag of shite right now, so be honest about it. If he were to say that the play offs were gone, most will agree, it doesn't mean they should stop trying to win every game. In fact, go gung ho, it may be a disaster but a damn sight more entertaining than most of the bilge his team have served up.

I actually remember the reaction Phil Brown got when suggested as s potential manager last time around.

 

[PeteBlade]

Are you saying that given a choice Adkins didn't want to spend and recruit in Jan?

This has to be my favourite suggestion I've seen made by a selection few on here.

Absolutely hilarious.